Sunday, December 8, 2013

Back to Hwaseong

This week I've been in Hwaseong city, Korea for the HwaseongInternational Dinosaurs Expedition Symposium. I started this blog back in 2010
as a way to document my experiences working in the dino lab in Hwaseong, and so
it was wonderful to be able to return more than three years later and see
what's new. The symposium highlights research following the conclusion of the
five-year Korea-Mongolia International Dinosaur Project. Many thanks to Dr.
Yuong-Nam Lee, the city of Hwaseong, and all of the other organizers and staff
who invited us to present our work at this excellent conference!

It was a special treat to see the new ankylosaur skeleton prepared and mounted in the lobby of our hotel! Watch out Tarbosaurus, you're about to get a face full of tail club.

Outside the main event room, the city had set up the winning entries from a local crafts contest themed around Koreaceratops. There were some awesome items on display!

It was also wonderful to eat real Korean food again! So tasty.

Hwaseong is home to dinosaur nesting sites as well as the holotype of Koreaceratops. There's a new observation tower on the hill above the reclaimed salt marsh which gives an excellent view of the area. The islands in the midground are Cretaceous egg-bearing rocks, but apparently the hill we're on in this photo, and the hills in the distances, are Precambrian basement.

Heading on out to see some of the nests!

The outside of the visitor centre has undergone a dramatic transformation, and now hosts a gigantic bas relief of Julius Csotonyi's Koreaceratopsillustration.

Koreaceratops has also replaced the old Protoceratops model inside the centre. We also had a chance to check out some really special specimens collected during the expeditions that have now been prepared, but they are secret until published, so I can't share photos here! Needless to say, there are some wonderful papers coming down the pipeline resulting from these expeditions. On to the next adventure!

Since the ankylosaur is not yet published and I am not sure who is working on it, I didn't do any 'formal' study or photos on this trip. The skeleton is really good but not complete, so parts of the mounted display are from other specimens. I look forward to seeing this specimen described!